On Thursday morning, PEN America, the free-speech organization, posted an article detailing the “isolation and exclusion” many Israeli and Jewish writers have felt since October 7, 2023.

After Graham Platner officially withdrew from the Maine Senate race this week, Democrats are now in the process of naming his replacement. On Washington Week With The Atlantic, panelists joined to discuss how the party is trying to salvage their chances in the state, and more.

The other night, I found myself in the unenviable position of trying to cook a salad. And I mean cook a salad: I spread fresh, delicious-looking gem lettuce in a pan and watched it wilt away into a sad, heated blob.
America appears to be in the midst of an outbreak of—I’m sorry, but there’s no better way to say this—explosive diarrhea.

Pieter de Hooch was a contemporary of Johannes Vermeer in the Dutch city of Delft for a time; they painted similar subjects, in similar costumes, engaged in similarly quotidian activities. But they were quite different artists. De Hooch’s 1663 painting Interior With Women Beside a Linen Cupboard delivers exactly as little drama and numinous transcendence as its title promises. (It was formerly called The Good Housewife, which is hardly better.) The intrigue lies elsewhere.

You know it’s hot when summer camps have to cancel bonfires and doctors warn that playgrounds could be dangerous. Last week, when a heat dome was descending on New York City, I grew a bit concerned myself. My children’s outdoor day camp promised to “pivot to ‘water games,’” as the email put it, and said that there would be fans and misters. “Of course,” the camp added, “if you feel the heat for the rest of this week will not set your camper up for success, feel free to keep them at home.